I have assembled this page to try to shed some light on the truth behind a recent controversy generated by the popular British television show Brainiac. A few seasons ago Brainiac broadcast an episode in which they claimed to show what happens when approximately two grams of each of the five alkali metals (lithium, sodium, potassium, rubidium, and cesium) are thrown into a tub of water. The first three were, probably, real, but the last two explosions turned out to have been completely fake. They simply put a bomb in a bathtub and blew it to bits, pretending that this was the result of two grams of rubidium. Then they did it again and pretended it was two grams of cesium. (Cesium is spelled caesium where they come from, buy lying in lying on either side of the Atlantic.)

This shocking fact was revealed by reporter [link|http://www.badscience.net/|Ben Goldacre] in [link|http://www.guardian.co.uk/life/badscience/story/0,,1821144,00.html|an article] in The Guardian (a respected daily newspaper in England). The next week he followed up with further revelations about the [link|http://www.guardian.co.uk/life/badscience/story/0,,1826518,00.html|deplorable state of honesty at Brainiac]. (Modesty prevents me from pointing out that his second article compares my humble [link|http://www.theodoregray.com/PeriodicTable/Stories/011.2/index.html|sodium party] most favorably to the fakers over at Brainiac.)